franzbrandstaetter.com

Apr 12, 2019

2 min read

Good, Better, Perfect

Today we have arrived back home after a couple of weeks of distance. At home means, back at the grandparents house from our kids point of view, back where all the disaster in our mental health started years ago, from our view.

But can one really blame the parents for all the psychological problems we have embedded? Is this a fair way of dealing with things ? I guess the obvious answer should be no, as everyone should focus on what can be changed by oneself and not on external influences. But honestly, after being back for 2 hours, I think all the self-help books need to be re-written. There is a secret force going on here that is hard to explain, but very much felt by all the kids around.

The force is invisible, it is strong and it is evil. Pretty much the same as the one in StarWars, it could be in all of us. Some are resistant, but most at some point give in. It comes in waves and the swell is heavy. The force tries to address different topics from time to time. We are facing the 'good, better, best' topic right now. All of what we do, is just ok, but what our parents are doing, is at the edge of : out of this world. It is not only good or better, it is perfect and can't be done any better. And we have to appreciate this in every sentence and every action. Even our kids are carried through the house to show them the perfection of this grand-parental universe. Maybe that is why they are called grandparents in the first place !

I know that I should not care about this at all. It is what they are doing and how they live. They try to influence and manipulate. A pretty normal reaction and a lot of people are just like that. But I am a free-thinker and I want to give everybody room to breathe and experiment. I don't want perfection, I want a better world for my kids, a world that just works out, without harming anyone or anything else.

'Good, better, best' is what our society is taught to achieve. We stop to think about our personal need, our impact on the environment or the energy we need to come up with when it comes to investments. Most people I know want the best, the cheapest the most expensive, the fastest, the latest, the best looking...I can go on forever. But what do we need? We need food and shelter. Period. No 250 square meter house that needs to be heated, maintained and built in the first place. We don't need an SUV to drive through the city for 5km a day to bring our newborn to the nursery. We do not need a sauna in the basement or a pool in the garden. We do not need a perfectly trimmed green that needs to be fertilised twice a year with unknown pesticides.

But we have stopped to think for our own. I start to realise this clearer and clearer every day. Human society is not thinking anymore. This scares me.